| >It is my opinion (based on experience) that companies that insist on a whiteboard test, despite years of programming on your resume and open source code, are either Ball-Pit companies (who don't know what it means to be a professional) or Clown-Nose companies (who know what it means to be a professional but still treat you like a commodity). Just walk away. You're entitled to your opinion. I even happen to hold part of it. But discounting the entire idea of whiteboarding is incredibly stupid. No, you should not be writing more than pseudocode/logical outlines on the board. But you absolutely must be able to convey ideas - and visual conveyance is the best way to convey them. Draw basic flow diagrams. Write logical steps. Document, explain, and argue for not only why this approach "will work", but why it's appropriate for the given scenario (could be, "if I only have an hour to get this to work, this is how I'll do it: it will work, but it may not be efficient or pretty", or "here's the high-level overview with a couple zoom-ins - obviously the full solution will take some time to fully architect, but this is a very strong start", or "there are many better ways of solving riddles like this - I don't waste my time recalling those trivialities when I can look them up in a few seconds in <name of book/website>"). |
What I, personally, have a problem with is using it as the catch-all filter to weed out 'bad candidates' when in reality all it does is prove someone can grind leetcode and is good under pressure. Arguments can be made that those are desirable skills to have, but I hate that it's becoming the default pass/fail section of an interview.
In OPs case, and what I am generally against, is that white boarding is being weighted more than any other portion, including relevant and measurable experience. Sure, give a simple problem if you're worried the candidate is BSing about their experience/skills, but it should be set up for success and not failure.
Unfortunately, as long as the 'best companies' (i.e. FANG) are doing it, everyone else will follow suit. And yeah, it'd be great if job seekers had the opportunity to walk away from these types of interviews, but in reality it is very much a company favored market when it comes to hiring in tech right now. Despite the constant supply of new job openings, nobody seems desperate enough for engineers to change things up.
There's also a bit of engineer hubris involved. Most people who are into CS seem to be highly competitive and willing to show off, and white boarding sets up a great environment to get your ego stroked over how well you can optimize something for no reason at all.